Wednesday, March 29, 2017

We got lucky. There was a horrendous storm last night with 70 mile per hour straight line winds. Our power was out for about five hours, but the electricity was restored around breakfast time so we hardly even noticed the outage. At some point during the storm I heard the heavy thump of a tree limb hitting the roof, but when I looked this morning there was no damage. The limb was small enough that I was able to remove it without much difficulty. For the most part, Dot and Dash slept through the storm, so we didn't have the usual thunder and lightning issues.

I didn't really realize how bad the storm was until we took our morning walk. There were dozens of large trees that had been blown over in the park. Some looked like a giant had pulled them out of the ground by their roots. There were sticks and twigs everywhere. Some of the tree limbs were in fields where there were no trees, so the wind must have blown them there. Even the birdhouses for the Purple Martins had been blown over.

When I turned on the television I saw that entire houses had been demolished in some parts of town. Thousands of people were without power this morning. Often our electricity is the last to be restored after a major power outage, but this time it looked like they got to us first. As I said, we got lucky last night.

I really need to remember to always keep all my devices charged. My first thought when the power went out was that I hadn't charged my phone or laptop. When the company was busy and I had lots of deadlines, having a working computer available at all times was a top priority. Now the computers aren't as much of an issue. What I worry about these days is losing the washing machine. A day without a washing machine with Dot peeing all over the place would be a disaster.

The refrigerator was looking kind of empty, so I went back to Central Market and got another one of those bowls for dinner. These tasty one-dish meals are great. It would be difficult to make something like this myself. The shredded beef was braised in soy sauce. The kale and mushrooms were roasted and had kind of a smoky flavor. The carrots and cucumbers appeared to be marinated. Even the barley that everything was piled on top of was delicious. I'm not even going to pretend to cook things anymore. It's so much easier and fun to buy something like this.

Dot had a good day, but Dash was moody again. The first two times I tried to walk him this afternoon, he wouldn't leave the back yard. I gave up and walked Dot instead. After dinner this evening, Dash decided that he wanted to walk after all and we had a nice sunset stroll. I have no idea what goes through this dog's mind. Why would he refuse to walk at 4 PM, but be eager to walk at sunset? I have to stay flexible because Dot is not very predictable either. Some days she wants to walk first. Other days she is tired and doesn't want to walk at all.

I hope the nasty weather is over for a while. I know we'll have more storms, because Spring is all about stormy weather here in Texas. I'm glad I had the trees trimmed a few weeks ago, because I'm sure that some of the limbs they trimmed would have fallen last night. Actually, I need to get the tree guy to come back. I saw several more dead limbs when I was up on the roof this morning.

I need to get the water off the roof tomorrow. The car is dirty and the grass needs to be mowed as well. I guess it all depends on how well I sleep tonight.

About Me

John Sealander received a Bachelor of Architecture and a BA in Art from
The University of Arkansas. His rich and diverse experience includes
working as an architectural designer for Fred Bassetti in Seattle,
producing documentary films for PBS, shooting commercial photography
for True Redd’s “Great Shooting Gallery” in Dallas and teaching writing
courses at SMU’s Academy of Visual Communication. For over 35 years,
John has developed memorable and award winning ads and images for some
of the world’s leading ad agencies and most popular brands. In 1990 he
started Sealander & Company, the Dallas, Texas based production
company and multi-media agency where he continues to develop his ideas
today.